Polaroid shines spotlight on new business Web site

Polaroid Corp. is breaking a $2.5 million business-to-business print and online campaign this week to boost awareness of its commercial imaging products and introduce its new b-to-b Web site.

"The decision that we can make the Web the centerpiece of our selling and communication promise" was the impetus for the campaign, said Carol Phelan, group marketing manager at Polaroid. The site, to launch July 10 at polaroidwork.com, will offer information about products, new ways to use them and how to buy them online via links to Polaroid's channel partners.

ARRAYOF IMAGING

Polaroid's aim is to re-establish itself as a full-service imaging company. Commercial products such as digital scanners and professional cameras generate half the company's $2 billion in annual revenue.

Polaroid hopes to show business customers the array of imaging applications it offers, said Chris Colbert, president of Holland Mark Edmund Ingalls, Boston, Polaroid's b-to-b agency that created the seven print executions to run in magazines including Fortune, Newsweek and trade publications. The new campaign marks the first time in more than five years that Polaroid is targeting a broad audience in business publications instead of product-heavy marketing to vertical trades.

One challenge was to push

b-to-b "without muddying up the consumer story," which has built "phenomenal equity around the brand," Mr. Colbert said. "Polaroidwork.com is a sub-brand to talk about the commercial space."

The image-heavy ads show various settings -- including an archaeological dig and a dental lab -- in which Polaroid's imaging products are used. Each has a single copy line, "One of the many solutions you didn't expect from Polaroid," and highlights the new site's URL. The message is "to learn more about this surprise truth, visit polaroidwork.com," Mr. Colbert said.